Concrete water-measuring device



WILLIAM MAYO VENABLE, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOB'VTO BLAWPatented Aug. 5, '1930 UNITED vvSTATES PATENT OFFICE'- XNOX COMPANY, OFPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A 'CORPORATION 0l' NEW JERSEY CONCRETEWATER-MEASUBING DEVICE Application Bled June 16,

of mixing water that should be used in order to get the strongestpossible concrete is the least amount that w1ll suffice for thoroughmixing and subsequent compacting into the smallestpossible volume. Thegreater the proportion of water the more workable will be the resultingbatch of concrete and in placing concrete in thin slabs or Walls andaround reinforcing steel it is necessary to use more than the idealamount of water. In large foundations where tamping is easiy, the amountof water can be substantial y reduced.

Nevertheless, as Stated, until comparatively recently but slightattention has een paid to accurately determining the amount of water inorder to produce the strongest possibleconcretefor the-'particular jobin hand and, broadly speaking, it is the principal object of myinvention to provide an exceedingly simple, accurate, eilicient andinexpensive device or measuring out Whatever quantity of water may havebeen predetermined as-the most desirable for a given batch of concretelY In carrying out my invention I also prov vide for convenience andrapidity of opera- -tion for, with the device which I have developed, aswill more fully appearhereinafter, vit is unnecessary for the operatoron the job to resort to measurements or. calculations of any kind inorder to get exactly that amount of water previously determined upon asthe best for eachbatch.

In further considerin the objects of my invention it should be orne in'.mind that there are at present in use two general methods ofdeterminingthe amount of water required for a batch oconcrete. In theAfirstvr place on very large jobs itis usual to determine by eerienoe'justwhat the proportions lofp'the varlous ingredients should bd.The

1927. semi in.v 199,165.

practice is to take various quantities of sand, cement, stone and waterand mix them together thoroughly and then to make sample c linders fromthese mixtures and to test t e cylinders for strength and other physicalproperties. 'From these tests the proportions are chosen whichwere-found-to give the best results, and where work is conducted as thevresultrof such test the quantitiesv of` sand, stone, cement and waterentering into,

each batch may'n bespeclied, the specification reading that so manycubic feet or gallons. ofwater shouldbe used for each batch of kconcrete containing af/given number of bags of cement and a certainnumber of cubic feetor pounds ofsand and stone. In the second Y place 1t1s nowbecoming more and more common to specify or to determine theamount of water as a certain proportion of the amount of cement used.Thus it may be specifiedk that 'the .water-cement ratio shall benine-tenths which vmeans that for every cubic foot of cement (one sackof cement being taken asI one cubic foot) there shall be used ninetenths of a cubic foot/"of water.

Having these -`tw'o 'systems' in mind as being 1n common use, it 'is anobject of my invention to provide 'a device which can bepu'sed Withoutchange .to measurel out the predetermlned quantity of water regardless-of whether such quantitybe s ecilied by volume as gallons or cubic feetor dy ratio to cement.

Furthermore,;as there is always a certain amount of water introducedinto a'batch of concrete with the stone and sand used, it is customary,to imake allowance "for this moisture in.. determining upon the amountof water to be Aadded and it is also an objectof my invention to providea measuring device-'of the character described by-means of Vwhichfthisallowance can be readly taken careoiv fr More specifically stated, Ipropose to pro- Y vide ari-apparatus including a tankby 'means .of whichthe' amount of water which can be withdrawn or dischar Ved from the tankwill always be-tlie same oreach batch of-con.:

crete and which be readily redetermined nrlclcordancejwith the :theoriesalready set o i .p ,i

It is a further object of m invention to f Yprovide a sliding gauge memer projecting ciated with such gauge member by means of which saidmember can be set.

With the foregoing in mind l will now describe the preferred embodimentof my invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing,wherein is a side elevation of the apparatus as a whole with certainportions, however, in section in order to show the water lbvels; and

Fig. 2 is a similar view of the upper portion of the device illustratingin detail the scales or charts used in association with the gaugemember.

As seen the device includes an air-tight tank 1 which communicates atthe bottom a pipe 2 with a three-Way valve 3 of any ordinaryconstruction. With the handle of the three-way valve in the positionindicated in the drawing, any water in the tank can be Y discharged thruthe discharge pipe 4, inflow from the supply pipe being shut. olf. Byturning the handle 3 to its opposite or righthand position, dischargefrom lthe tank can be cut oil andinow from the pipe 5 established.

Thru a suitable seal 6 in the top of the tank I project down into thetank the gauge member 7 which, in this instance, 'takes the form of anopen-ended tube. By suitably turning the seal 6 the sealing pressure onthe tube 7 can be suiciently relieved to permit vertical or upeand downadjustment of the gauge mem r 7 in order to vary the distance betgn itslower end and the bottom of the t Associated with the tank is a floatchamber 8 which, in. the embodiment shown, I place in communication withthe water in the tank 1 by means of the pipe 9. The ioat 10 in thischamber operates a shut-off valve mechanism 11 in the supply pipe 5'thru the medium of the lever mechanism 19. Inasmuch as devices of thiskind are quite common and well understood in the art, no attempt hasbeeln made to illustrate or vdescribe its detai s.

In operation the device is used as follows. The gauge member 7 isadjusted as will be described hereinafter and the handle of thethree-way valve 3 is turned to the osition which-will establishcommunication etween water touches the bottom of the tube 7 the outletfor the air is cut off and .the water cannot rise any farther in thetank because of the air trappedin the upper portion thereof. The watermay rise very slightly above the bottom of the gauge member 7 within thetank 1 depending ysomewhat upon the pressure under which it is beingintroduced but in any event the distance will be negligible and can bereadily computed in determining the amount of water which enters thetank.

As the water is still 'turned on after the level in the tank has reachedthe bottom of the gauge member 7, it will continue to rise withilrthetube 7 as well as in the communicating pipe 9 and the ioat chamber 8.When the float reaches approximately the dotted line position indicatedin the drawing, the shut-oil valve l1 will be closed and the supply ofwater will be cut off.

Knowing the sizes of the various parts it will be readilyunderstood-that the amount of Water in the system can be very accuratelyestimated. It will also be apparent that the only thing which it isnecessary for the operator to do in using the device once it has beenset is to manipulate the handle of the three-way valve 3.

A With the foregoing in mind it will readily be seen that by means of asuitable scale member 13 the gauge member 7 can be easily adjusted sothatthe amount of water to be withdrawn from the tank can bepredetermined with exceeding simplicity and accuracy.

By referring to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the scale is calibrated togive readings in any one of the three general methods of specifying thewater content of a batch of concrete now in common use. The right-handcolu'nm shows the water in cubic feet, the column next to the leftshows'it in gallons, the left hand column shows the water cel ment-ratiowhere twobags of cement are to `be used and the column next thereto isdivided into an upper and a lower portion, the lower one of which givesa reading of the Water where the water cement-ratio is specified and theamount of cement to be used in a batch is one bag and the upper portionof the same column doing the same thing where' the number of bags ofcement to be used is three. v

The gauge member 7 carries a movable indica-tor 14 for apurpose whichwill now be described. As previousl indicated a certain amount of wateris near y always introduced with stone and sand and it is customaryfincareful work to take thisvmoisture content of the stone and sand intoconsideration in determining the amount of water to be added. The amountof'water contained in the sand and stone is determined from time to timeby taking samples of the material and measuring the contained water.Thisis generally found to be reasonably constant from batch the operatorsets the indicator on the tube at the reading .5 and then moves the tubeso -that the indicator is brought to the point on the scale which showsthe amount of water specified according to any one of the methods now incommon use, namely in cubic feet,

" gallons or water-cement ratio depending upon the number of bags ofcement specified.

It will therefore be apparent that with the device which I havedisclosed it is exceedingly easy to measure out laccurately and rapidlythe amount of Water necessary for la batch of concrete regardlessv ofthe partielllar method of measuring such water specified for theparticular job in hand.

It will be understood, of course, that the gauge member together withthe associated scales or charts could be readily applied to apparatus ofvarying designs and I wish it to be understood that my invention is notto be limited to the particular design disclosed. For instance, I mayprovide a pipe large enough to act as an overflow pipe adjustablyprojected through the bottom of the tank together with means forshutting off the water when the point of overflow is reached. Thisoverow pipe could carry a suitable indicator adapted to give a readingon a scale or chart like the one described above.

1. `In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a` tank, a fixed scale, a sliding gaugemember projecting into the tank for predetermining the quantity of waterto be discharged therefrom, and a scale on'said gauge member, calibratedin terms of the amount of water found in the solid constituents ofthebatch, said gauge being set by both of said scales in4 cooperation topredetermine the discharge of water as aforesaid.

2. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a sliding gauge member projectinginto the tank for predetermining the quantity of water to be dischargedtherefrom, and a scale by means of which said gauge member is-set, saidscale being calibrated s'o as to ive a reading of the water in terms ofcubic eet, gallons and cement-ratio.

3. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a sliding gauge member. projectinginto the tank for predetermining the quantity of water to be dischargedtherefrom, and a scale by means of which said gauge member is set, saidscale being calibrated so as to give a reading of the water in terms ofcement-ratio.

4. In an apparatus for measuring the 'Water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a sliding gauge member projectinginto the tank for predetermining the quantity of water to be dischargedtherefrom, and a scale of said gauge member, calibrated in terms of theamount of water found in a solid constituent of the batch.

5. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batchofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a sliding gauge member projectinginto the tank for predetermining the quantity of water to be dischargedtherefrom, a cement-ratio scale fixed' with relation to said gaugemember, and a scale on the gauge member, calibrated in terms of theamount of Water found in a solidconstituent of the batch, said gaugebeing adapted to be set by both of said scales in cooperation topredetermine the dischargeof water as aforesaid. y

6. In an apparatus for measuring the Water to be used `in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a sliding gauge member projectinginto the tank for predetermining the quantity of Water to be dischargedtherefrom, a water scale fixed with relation to said gauge member, ascale on the gauge member, calibrated in terms of the amount of Waterfound in a solid constituent of the batch, and an adjustable indicatoron said gauge scale, said gauge member being adapted to be set byadjustingl said gauge scale indicator to the required point on the gaugescale and moving said gauge member so as to bring the said indicator toJthe proper4 point on the fixed water scale.

7. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, Water supply means and Waterdischarge means for the tank, a scale calibrated in terms of the'vvaterto be discharged, a second scale calibrated in terms of the amount ofwater foundfin a solid con. stituent of the batch, one of said scalesbeing movable, and indicating means adapted to be set by both of saidscales in cooperation to designate the amount of water to`be discharged`from the tank.

8. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used inra batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, water supply means and Waterdischarge means for the tank, a fixed scale calibrated in terms of thewater to be" discharged, a movable scalecalibrated 1n terms of theamount of'water found in a solid constituent of the batch, andindicating vlofi means adapted to be set by both of said scales Y incooperation to designate the amount of water to be discharged from thetank.4

9. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, a water supply conduit, a floatactuated valve for shutting off 5 said supply conduit when the tank hasbeen filled to a predetermined level, a valve controlled dischargeconduit, a scale calibrated in terms of the water to be discharged, asec; ond scale calibrated in terms of the amount of water found in asolid constituent'of the' batch, one of said scales beingmovable, andindicating means adapted to be set byboth of said scales in cooperationto designate the amount of water to be discharged from the tank. A Y

10. In an apparatus for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination of a tank, water supply means and waterdischarge'means for the tank, a

scale calibrated in terms of the water to be discharged by volume and bycement ratio, a second scale calibrated in terms of the amount of waterfound in a solid constituent of the batch, one of said scales beingmovable, and indicating means adapted to be set by both of said scalesin cooperation to designate the amount of water to be discharged fromthe tank.

11. In a-n apparatus 'for measuring the water to be used in a batch ofconcrete, the combination 'of a tank, Water supply means and waterdischarge means for the tank, indicator means for designating the amountof water to be discharged from the tank, and

a scale upon which said indicator means registers, said scale beingcalibrated so as to give a reading ofthe water in terms vof volume andof cement-ratio.

12. In an apparatus for measuring the.

40 water to be used in a batch of concrete, the

combination of a tank, a sliding gauge mem-A -ber projecting into thetank for predetermining the quantity of water to be dischargedtherefrom, and a scale by means of which said '45' nge member is set,said scale being calirated so as to give a reading of the water in termsof volume and of cement-ratio.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

WILLIAM MAYO VENABLE.

